this post was submitted on 11 May 2025
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Its no problem, just learn German by translating the memes.
I do, admittedly, find it fun to try and work out the meaning through context despite not being able to read German.
If you can read English, you can read (most of) German. The problem is likely more in understanding it.
Listen here, you little shit.
Where are the Listen?
I am highly curious about the context of this particular one.
In many German Reddit meme communities, there’s a ban on using English enforced by the community through an all caps ouiji style comment chain, telling the offender “sprich deutsch, du hurensohn,” which means “speak German, you bastard [literally:son of a whore].” ~~In response to~~ (edit: Probably separately from but working well with) that, people began trying to avoid the use of germanized English words and wound up creating basically a pidgin in which things that don’t literally translate are translated literally, completely muddling things for English speakers learning German. My favorite example is a company that used to be run by bill gates, winzigweich, which makes kraftpunkt, Mannschaften, und überbiete, in addition to Fenster.
Edit: the pidgin is called Zangendeutsch (tongs German)
We even have a Zangendeutsch-dictionary!
Who is this "Bill Gates"? Do you mean Gesetzesentwurf Bogen?
Ah fuck
Side note: the translation you chose for bill was not one of the two I was thinking of (Schein as in currency and Rechnung), which reminded me of when my student asked why there were two words for receipt and I listed off five and just had to apologize
Scheintore klingt gut.
My memory isn't what it was and it's been at least 100 years, back when Krautchan was ~~good~~ existent, but I do think Zangendeutsch came before we started enforcing it by declaring offenders Hurensöhne. If there are/were ever people who seriously wanted to ban English (and allow only German exclusively), they were a tiny minority and the point of Zangendeutsch went right over their head.
One could even see it as a parody of people who really want to ban any non-German influence on the German language. Zangendeutsch shows how ridiculous it would be to vanish all words of a language that haven't been part of that language for more than –let's say– a hundred years.
Tbh I just find the "Translations" really funny. Sometimes I also use them in real life as well
One of us
Jup, it's still ich_iel-stuff after all.
Was er ☝️ sagt.
To be fair, it’s a common source of comedy for speakers of any language with a lot of loan words to treat them like calques for the purpose of momentary confusion. People refer to little mules or little asses when discussing Mexican food in English, for example. I also didn’t even start learning German until 2009, so I definitely wasn’t there when it started.
Nothing could be further from me than claiming we're being very original. Only 1 Pimmel would do that. I just thought your Pfosten might make people think there may be OTHER, very uniquely German reasons for this nonsense. Ü
I mean, Zangendeutsch really takes it to another level with the absolute commitment though
It certainly is no laughing matter.
What do you expect? It's ~~German stuff~~ stuff some weird selfish 2000s internet nerd basement kids invented. And I think it's beautiful.
i mean I think I got that. I meant what is literally happening in this photo? What are these kids riding on? Why is that other kid curled up in a ball on the bathroom floor? What led to this photo being taken?
These are (Pedalos)[https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedalo_%28Spielger%C3%A4t%29]. For some reasons they are available in every elementary school in Germany. It's not that simple to ride on them without falling, hence they are spreading their arms to have better balance
Use
[text](url)instead of(text)[url]to create a link:Pedalos
You could almost think that all is still right with the world, given the fact that Germans can take the time to teach a few Lemmy-Markdown rules on the side while invading Anglo-Saxon climes. I love Lemmy for moments like this.
Honestly, it felt more like https://xkcd.com/386/.
xkcd on point as always. Little fires are blazing all over the internet. When there's a fireman in your head, there's always a lot to do. Sounds familiar to me too.
Ah yes, learn Zangendeutsch for make benefit homeland